Ongoing controversy at several private colleges and universities makes this a critical time to address the conflicting voices of evangelical Christians and homosexuals on university campuses. In April 2000, the evangelical Tufts Christian Fellowship was "derecognized" by the student government because it refused to consider for leadership a woman who rejected the group's belief that homosexual activity is sinful. As a result, the group lost its funding, its ability to reserve meeting places on campus, as well as the right to use "Tufts" in its name. Although the decision was eventually revoked on procedural grounds, the substantive issues remain unresolved. Similar conflicts between gay students and campus religious groups have arisen at Grinnell, Middlebury, Whitman, and Williams Colleges. This symposium was designed to provide a forum for constructive discussion of the civil rights issues at stake, and to help negotiate the claims of individuals and communities in a manner consistent with academic freedom.

The symposium was held at the George Washington University Law Center on Tuesday, June 13, 2000. David French, the attorney for the Tufts Christian Fellowship gave an overview of the Tufts controversy and its implications. He was followed by four distinguished panelists: William Galston (University of Maryland), Stephen Macedo (Princeton University), Chai Feldblum (Georgetown Law School), and Patricia Logue (Lambda Legal Defense Fund). Please see the attached biographies of our participants.

Speakers

David A. French is a lecturer at Cornell Law School. Mr. French entered academia after practicing in New York City, Tennessee, and, most recently, Kentucky in the areas of commercial litigation and constitutional law, with a particular emphasis on church-state issues and free speech. Mr. French has represented private religious colleges, churches, ministry groups, and denominational organizations. He recently co-authored a novel with his wife. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Patricia M. Logue is the Supervising Attorney of the Midwest Regional Office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV/AIDS. Logue established Lambda's Midwest office in Chicago in 1993 and directed its full operations and docket for six years. She now oversees Lambda's legal and public policy efforts in the region and serves as an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law. Logue has litigated cases and represented amici in numerous state and federal appellate and trial courts. Her recent work before the U.S. Supreme Court has included Board of Regents v. Southworth(mandatory fees for campus student group activities) (amicus), Dale v. Boy Scouts of America(co-authored brief for gay man excluded from Scouting) and Troxel v. Granville (grandparent and nonparent visitation) (amicus). She received her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.

Stephen Macedo is Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics at Princeton University and the University Center for Human Values. His interests range across the fields of political theory, ethics, American constitutionalism, and public policy. His writings include Liberal Virtues: Citizenship, Virtue, and Community in Liberal Constitutionalism; The New Right v. The Constitution; and Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy. He is editor of Reassessing the Sixties: Debating the Political Cultural Legacy; Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement; and of several volumes in his capacity as editor of the annual NOMOS collections of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy. His critique of the conservative stance on sexual morality, "Homosexuality and the Conservative Mind," (Georgetown Law Review) won the Fred Berger prize of the American Philosophical Association. He is a member of the Executive Editorial Committee of Political Theory, and is on the editorial boards of the American Political Science Review and Ethics. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University.

William A. Galston is Professor, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, and Director of the University's Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. Professor Galston is a political theorist who both studies and participates in American politics and domestic policy. In the first two years of the Clinton administration, he served as the Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Galston's public experience also includes stints as chief speechwriter for John Anderson's National Unity campaign (1980), as issues director for Walter Mondale's presidential campaign (1984), and as senior advisor to Albert Gore, Jr. during his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. In 1991-92, Galston held a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He is a founding co-editor of The Responsive Community, a journal that explores the issues of community, responsibility, and the common good in public policy. He is the author of numerous articles in political theory and five books, including Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State (Cambridge University Press, 1991). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.